General Colin Powell to Address Third Graduating Class of CCNY’s Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership

Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership

General Colin Powell to Address Third Graduating Class of CCNY’s Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership

May 27, 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.), a 1958 graduate of the City College of New York, former secretary of state and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will address the graduates of the CCNY school founded in his name on May 28, 2015.

“We’re tremendously excited to have General Powell address the graduates of his school,” said Vince Boudreau, dean of the Colin Powell School. “For over a decade, General Powell has been working with us to develop programs that will support the success and capacity of our students. His leadership in shaping and implementing the vision for a Colin Powell School here in Harlem has been indispensable to our work. As a graduate of CCNY himself, and a man with an unrivaled record of public service and accomplishment, he’s the most powerful possible example to our students of their potential, and a resounding testimony to the central role that public higher education plays in American life."

Powell is the Chair of the Board of Visitors of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at his alma mater, The City College of New York (CCNY). The Colin Powell School was inaugurated May 3, 2013, and stands alongside CCNY’s other premier named schools.

For more than a decade, Powell has supported and advised work to develop leadership education on the campus of CCNY. He chaired the Advisory Council of the Colin Powell Center until it merged with CCNY’s Social Science Departments to form the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership in 2013. His philanthropic support, guidance, and advocacy for the Colin Powell School continue to this day via his role as chair of the Colin Powell School’s Board of Visitors.

For over fifty years, Powell has devoted his life to public service. Having held senior military and diplomatic positions across four presidential administrations, Powell’s deep commitment to democratic values and freedom has been felt throughout the world. He is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the America’s Promise Alliance, dedicated to forging a strong and effective partnership alliance committed to seeing that children have the fundamental resources they need to succeed.

The son of Jamaican immigrants, Powell was born in Harlem in April 1937 and was raised in the South Bronx. He was educated in the New York City public schools and after graduating from Morris High School attended The City College of New York where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology. It was not until he joined the Army ROTC program at CCNY that he discovered his calling and launched his military career. He received a commission as an Army second lieutenant upon graduation in 1958 and went on to serve in the United States Army for 35 years, rising to the rank of Four-Star General.

Powell will be joined at the graduation ceremony by CCNY President Lisa Staiano-Coico and other members of the Colin Powell School’s Board of Visitors. The Colin Powell School graduation precedes, by one day, the all-campus CCNY graduation, which takes place on May 29th.

About the Colin Powell School

Founded in 2013, and bridging the academic core of the former Division of Social Sciences and the leadership and service programs of the Colin L. Powell Center for Leadership and Service, the mission of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership is to transform students, faculty, communities, and the traditional university experience by adopting problem-based approaches to education. By promoting the values of service, engagement, and leadership, we enable our students to energetically address the challenges of the 21st century. By fostering creative and public scholarship, we ensure that our faculty produces and disseminates scholarship that is both relevant and in-touch.The school, located in historic Harlem at The City College of New York, addresses pressing global issues such as expanding rights and democracy, community stability and health, economic growth and national wealth creation and promoting education and the general betterment of those in need. The school focuses its research and teaching activities on fostering solutions that further equality, prosperity, stability, and peace for the whole people—in Harlem, in New York, and around the globe.

About The City College of New York

Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in: the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture; the School of Education; the Grove School of Engineering; the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, and the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. U.S. News, Princeton Review and Forbes all rank City College among the best colleges and universities in the United States.